We present a systematic survey for satellites of Venus using the Baade-Magellan 6.5 m telescope and IMACS wide-field CCD imager at Las Campanas observatory in Chile. In the outer portions of the Hill sphere the search was sensitive to a limiting red magnitude of about 20.4, which corresponds to satellites with radii of a few hundred meters when assuming an albedo of 0.1. In the very inner portions of the Hill sphere scattered light from Venus limited the detection to satellites of about a kilometer or larger. Although several main belt asteroids were found, no satellites (moons) of Venus were detected. (C) 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Extreme outer solar system objects have possible origins beyond the Kuiper Belt edge, high inclinations, very large semimajor axes, or large perihelion distances. Thirty-three such objects were observed in this work to determine their optical colors. All three objects that have been dynamically linked to the inner Oort Cloud by various authors ((90377) Sedna, 2006 SQ(372), and (87269) 2000 OO67) were found to have ultra-red surface material (spectral gradient, S similar to 25). Ultra-red material is generally associated with rich organics and the low inclination "cold" classical Kuiper Belt objects (KBOs). The observations detailed here show that very red material may be a more general feature for objects kept far from the Sun. The recently discovered retrograde outer solar system objects (2008 KV42 and 2008 YB3) and the high inclination object (127546) 2002 XU93 show only moderately red surfaces (S similar to 9) very similar to known comets, suspected dead comets, Jupiter and Neptune Trojans, irregular satellites, D-type asteroids, and damocloids. The extended or detached disk objects, which have large perihelion distances and are thus considered to be detached from the influence of the giant planets but yet have large eccentricities, are found to have mostly moderately red colors (10 less than or similar to S less than or similar to 18). The colors of the detached disk objects, including the dynamically unusual 2004 XR190 and (148209) 2000 CR105, are similar to the scattered disk and Plutino populations. Thus the detached disk, scattered disk, Plutino, and high inclination "hot" classical objects likely have a similar mix of objects from the same source regions. Outer classical KBOs, including (48639) 1995 TL8, were found to have very red surfaces (18 less than or similar to S less than or similar to 30). The low inclination "cold" classical KBOs, outer classical KBOs and possibly the inner Oort Cloud appear to be dominated by ultra-red objects (S greater than or similar to 25) and thus do not likely have a similar mix of objects as the other outer solar system reservoirs such as the scattered disk, detached disk, and Trojan populations. A possible trend was found for the detached disk and outer classical Kuiper Belt in that objects with smaller eccentricities have redder surfaces irrespective of inclinations or perihelion distances. There is also a clear trend that objects more distant appear redder.

The Kuiper belt is a collection of small bodies (Kuiper belt objects, KBOs) that lie beyond the orbit of Neptune and which are believed to have formed contemporaneously with the planets. Their small size and great distance make them difficult to study. KBO 55636 (2002 TX300) is a member of the water-ice-rich Haumea KBO collisional family(1). The Haumea family are among the most highly reflective objects in the Solar System. Dynamical calculations indicate that the collision that created KBO 55636 occurred at least 1 Gyr ago(2,3). Here we report observations of a multi-chord stellar occultation by KBO 55636, which occurred on 9 October 2009 UT. We find that it has a mean radius of 143 +/- 65 km (assuming a circular solution). Allowing for possible elliptical shapes, we find a geometric albedo of 0.88(0.06)(+0.15) in the V photometric band, which establishes that KBO 55636 is smaller than previously thought and that, like its parent body, it is highly reflective. The dynamical age implies either that KBO 55636 has an active resurfacing mechanism, or that fresh water-ice in the outer Solar System can persist for gigayear timescales.

We present an ultra-deep survey for Neptune Trojans using the Subaru 8.2 m and Magellan 6.5 m telescopes. The survey reached a 50% detection efficiency in the R band at m(R) = 25.7 mag and covered 49 deg(2) of sky. m(R) = 25.7 mag corresponds to Neptune Trojans that are about 16 km in radius (assuming an albedo of 0.05). A paucity of smaller Neptune Trojans (radii < 45 km) compared with larger ones was found. The brightest Neptune Trojans appear to follow a steep power-law slope (q = 5 +/- 1) similar to the brightest objects in the other known stable reservoirs such as the Kuiper Belt, Jupiter Trojans, and main belt asteroids. We find a roll-over for the Neptune Trojans that occurs around a radius of r = 45 +/- 10 km (m(R) = 23.5 +/- 0.3), which is also very similar to the other stable reservoirs. All the observed stable regions in the solar system show evidence for Missing Intermediate-Sized Planetesimals (MISPs). This indicates a primordial and not collisional origin, which suggests that planetesimal formation proceeded directly from small to large objects. The scarcity of intermediate-and smaller-sized Neptune Trojans may limit them as being a strong source for the short period comets.

We consider the application of interferometry to measuring the sizes and shapes of small bodies in the Solar System that cannot be spatially resolved by today's single-dish telescopes. Assuming ellipsoidal shapes, we provide a formalism to derive the shape parameters from visibility measurements along three different baseline orientations. Our results indicate that interferometers can measure the size of an object to better than 15% uncertainty if the limb-darkening is unknown. Assuming a Minnaert scattering model, one can theoretically derive the limb-darkening parameters from simultaneous measurements of visibilities at several different projected baseline lengths to improve the size and shape determination to an accuracy of a few percent. The best size measurement can be reached when one axis of the object's projected disk is aligned with one baseline orientation, and the measurement of cross-sectional area is independent of baseline orientation. We construct a 3-D shape model for the dwarf planet Haumea and use it to synthesize interferometric data sets. Using the Haumea model, we demonstrate that when photometric light curve, visibility light curve, and visibility phase center displacement are combined, the rotational period and sense of rotation can all be derived, and the rotational pole can be estimated. Because of its elongated shape and the dark red spot, the rotation of Haumea causes its optical photocenter to move in a loop on the sky. Our simulations show that this loop has an extend of about 80 mu as without the dark red spot, and about 200 mu as with it. Such movements are easily detectable by space-based astrometric interferometer designed e.g. for planet detection. As an example, we consider the possible contributions to the study of small bodies in the Solar System by the Space Interferometry Mission. We show that such a mission could make substantial contributions in characterizing the fundamental physical properties of the brightest Kuiper Belt Objects and Centaurs as well as a large number of main belt asteroids. We compile a list of Kuiper Belt Objects and Centaurs that are potentially scientifically interesting and observable by such missions. (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

We present a new near-infrared photometric system for detection of water ice and methane ice in the solar system. The system consists of two medium-band filters in the K-band region of the near-infrared, which are sensitive to water ice and methane ice, plus continuum observations in the J band and Y band. The primary purpose of this system is to distinguish between three basic types of Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs)-those rich in water ice, those rich in methane ice, and those with little absorbance. In this work, we present proof-of-concept observations of 51 KBOs using our filter system, 21 of which have never been observed in the near-infrared spectroscopically. We show that our custom photometric system is consistent with previous spectroscopic observations while reducing telescope observing time by a factor of similar to 3. We use our filters to identify Haumea collisional family members, which are thought to be collisional remnants of a much larger body and are characterized by large fractions of water ice on their surfaces. We add 2009 YE7 to the Haumea collisional family based on our water ice band observations (J - H2O = -1.03 +/- 0.27) which indicate a high amount of water ice absorption, our calculated proper orbital elements, and the neutral optical colors we measured, V - R = 0.38 +/- 0.04, which are all consistent with the rest of the Haumea family. We identify several objects dynamically similar to Haumea as being distinct from the Haumea family as they do not have water ice on their surfaces. In addition, we find that only the largest KBOs have methane ice, and Haumea itself has significantly less water ice absorption than the smaller Haumea family members. We find no evidence for other families in the Kuiper Belt.

In 2009, we used the Subaru telescope to observe all the faint irregular satellites of Neptune for the first time since 2004. These observations extend the data arcs for Halimede, Psamathe, Sao, Laomedeia, and Neso from a few years to nearly a decade. We also report on a search for unknown Neptune satellites in a half-square degree of sky and a limiting magnitude of 26.2 in the R band. No new satellites of Neptune were found. We numerically integrate the orbits for the five irregulars and summarize the results of the orbital fits in terms of the state vectors, post-fit residuals, and mean orbital elements. Sao and Neso are confirmed to be Kozai librators, while Psamathe is a "reverse circulator." Halimede and Laomedeia do not seem to experience any strong resonant effects.

About 2500 deg(2) of sky south of declination -25 degrees and/or near the Galactic Plane were surveyed for bright outer solar system objects. This survey is one of the first large-scale southern sky and Galactic Plane surveys to detect dwarf planets and other bright Kuiper Belt Objects in the trans-Neptunian region. The survey was able to obtain a limiting R-band magnitude of 21.6. In all, 18 outer solar system objects were detected, including Pluto which was detected near the Galactic center using optimal image subtraction techniques to remove the high stellar density background. Fourteen of the detections were previously unknown trans-Neptunian objects, demonstrating that the southern sky had not been well searched to date for bright outer solar system objects. Assuming moderate albedos, several of the new discoveries from this survey could be in hydrostatic equilibrium and thus could be considered dwarf planets. Combining this survey with previous surveys from the northern hemisphere suggests that the Kuiper Belt is nearly complete to around 21st magnitude in the R band. All the main dynamical classes in the Kuiper Belt are occupied by at least one dwarf-planet-sized object. The 3:2 Neptune resonance, which is the innermost well-populated Neptune resonance, has several large objects while the main outer Neptune resonances such as the 5:3, 7:4, 2:1, and 5:2 do not appear to have any large objects. This indicates that the outer resonances are either significantly depleted in objects relative to the 3:2 resonance or have a significantly different assortment of objects than the 3:2 resonance. For the largest objects (H < 4.5 mag), the scattered disk population appears to have a few times more objects than the main Kuiper Belt (MKB) population, while the Sedna population could be several times more than that of the MKB.

Kuiper Belt object 2007 TY430 is the first wide, equal-sized, binary known in the 3: 2 mean motion resonance with Neptune. The two components have a maximum separation of about 1 arcsec and are on average less than 0.1 mag different in apparent magnitude with identical ultra-red colors (g - i = 1.49 +/- 0.01 mag). Using nearly monthly observations of 2007 TY430 from 2007 to 2011, the orbit of the mutual components was found to have a period of 961.2 +/- 4.6 days with a semi-major axis of 21000 +/- 160 km and eccentricity of 0.1529 +/- 0.0028. The inclination with respect to the ecliptic is 15.68 +/- 0.22 deg and extensive observations have allowed the mirror orbit to be eliminated as a possibility. The total mass for the binary system was found to be 7.90 +/- 0.21 x 10(17) kg. Equal-sized, wide binaries and ultra-red colors are common in the low-inclination "cold" classical part of the Kuiper Belt and likely formed through some sort of three-body interactions within a much denser Kuiper Belt. To date 2007 TY430 is the only ultra-red, equal-sized binary known outside of the classical Kuiper Belt population. Numerical simulations suggest 2007 TY430 is moderately unstable in the outer part of the 3:2 resonance and thus 2007 TY430 is likely an escaped "cold" classical object that later got trapped in the 3:2 resonance. Similar to the known equal-sized, wide binaries in the cold classical population, the binary 2007 TY430 requires a high albedo and very low density structure to obtain the total mass found for the pair. For a realistic minimum density of 0.5 g cm(-3) the albedo of 2007 TY430 would be greater than 0.17. For reasonable densities, the radii of either component should be less than 60 km, and thus the relatively low eccentricity of the binary is interesting since no tides should be operating on the bodies at their large distances from each other. The low prograde inclination of the binary also makes it unlikely that the Kozai mechanism could have altered the orbit, making the 2007 TY430 binary orbit likely one of the few relatively unaltered primordial binary orbits known. Under some binary formation models, the low-inclination prograde orbit of the 2007 TY430 binary indicates formation within a relatively high velocity regime in the Kuiper Belt.